git yer joy on...

by russell

if you have not already met him one way or another, allow me to introduce you to Gurdeep Pandher.

who is Gurdeep?  he is a Punjabi Sikh who currently lives in the Yukon.  not sure how he got there, but life is interesting and full of surprises.

what does Gurdeep do?  he dances banghra style, but has been known to dance in other styles as well.

why does he do it?  for joy, hope, and positivity.

I want to be like Gurdeep.

everybody get happy for a minute.

Comments

[bobbyp]

everybody get happy for a minute.

what the heck, why not?

[Girl from the North Country]

I had never met him before, but now am glad to have done so.

We all take from things the bits that speak to us particularly. This was the part I loved:

In 9th grade, Gurdeep learnt from a friend in his village about a “thing” that existed in the world. His friend, with his sweet childish-innocence, called this thing a “Dishnary” (he meant “Dictionary”). It had an English translation of almost all the Punjabi words. Overjoyed with this new discovery, Gurdeep cycled all the way from his village to a nearby town, so he could buy that “thing”! It opened opportunities for him to learn a new language and communicate with the rest of the world. He read, word-by-word, all from the dictionary. Gurdeep was in grade 6 when he wrote his first poem. By grade 10, he had written numerous creative literature and compositions, including poetry, prose, a full novel, hundreds of stories and a play. By the age of 23, he became a published author of two books.

But the thing that made the most impression on me: the astounding beauty of the place in the Yukon (Spirit Canyon) where he is dancing in the first clip. My only impression of the Yukon before was from the poems of Robert Service (The Shooting of Dan McGrew, The Cremation of Sam McGee etc) which were favourites of my father's. I am so glad to have seen Gurdeep dancing there for joy.

[Michael Haubrich]

That's great.

the astounding beauty of the place in the Yukon (Spirit Canyon) where he is dancing in the first clip.

The existence of poplar trees is one of the gifts that nature gives northerners for perservering through the trials of the cold winters. Seeing the white bark is one of the signs that I look for that show me I am close to home whenever I visit northern Minnesota.

[GftNC]

Hmmm, I see that the first clip I mentioned, at Spirit Canyon, seems to have disappeared. This is part of it (alas not showing so much of the canyon, I don't think), which I found on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNHrm2BspKM

[wj]

Definitely broadening my horizons. Because if someone said "an Indian in the Yukon" this is definitely not the image that would have come to mind.

Our world keeps getting smaller and more integrated. Like it or not. And, to my mind, it's a very good thing.

[wonkie]

I envy him living up there. I've been to Yukon Territory three or four times and loved it. I can't grt my husband interested tho plus we're Americans

[wj]

The Yukon, like the Fairbanks area of Alaska, is beautiful. In summer.

Winter is a whole different story. Beautiful eenough in its own way, I suppose. But even with zero wind, and so no wind chill (e.g. Fairbanks), 40 below is not my personal idea of a good time. YMMV.

[JanieM]

40 below is not my personal idea of a good time

I've been through a few days in the minus 30s in my life, and slept in a tent once when it was -19.

The interesting thing about it, I thought, was that you can bundle up enough to function, but it's still work just to breathe: taking air that cold into your lungs and making your body have to warm it up....

[wj]

it's still work just to breathe: taking air that cold into your lungs

I found it helpful to arrange my clothing so that the air had to pass thru around part of my body on the way to my lungs, just to get it warm it up. Of course, you need to have a separate route for exhaling, just to be sure you get fresh air all the time. Definitely a hassle.

And then there's the problem of subjecting your eyes to the cold....

[cleek]

i found you can deal with cold by either constructing a large rigid enclosure around yourself or finding one premade, then using some kind of energy source (electricity through a high resistance or combustion of wood) to generate heat.

install a window, if you want.

[Girl from the North Country]

40 below is not my personal idea of a good time

Since you're talking about the cold, I can't resist. For anybody who knows the very obscene, anonymous rugby song The Ballad of Eskimo Nell, you will understand (if you didn't know any Service before) why many have speculated that Service wrote it:

The Cremation of Sam McGee
BY ROBERT W. SERVICE

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.

Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows.
Why he left his home in the South to roam 'round the Pole, God only knows.
He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell;
Though he'd often say in his homely way that "he'd sooner live in hell."

On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail.
Talk of your cold! through the parka's fold it stabbed like a driven nail.
If our eyes we'd close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn't see;
It wasn't much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee.

And that very night, as we lay packed tight in our robes beneath the snow,
And the dogs were fed, and the stars o'erhead were dancing heel and toe,
He turned to me, and "Cap," says he, "I'll cash in this trip, I guess;
And if I do, I'm asking that you won't refuse my last request."

Well, he seemed so low that I couldn't say no; then he says with a sort of moan:
"It's the cursèd cold, and it's got right hold till I'm chilled clean through to the bone.
Yet 'tain't being dead—it's my awful dread of the icy grave that pains;
So I want you to swear that, foul or fair, you'll cremate my last remains."

A pal's last need is a thing to heed, so I swore I would not fail;
And we started on at the streak of dawn; but God! he looked ghastly pale.
He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day of his home in Tennessee;
And before nightfall a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee.

There wasn't a breath in that land of death, and I hurried, horror-driven,
With a corpse half hid that I couldn't get rid, because of a promise given;
It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say: "You may tax your brawn and brains,
But you promised true, and it's up to you to cremate those last remains."

Now a promise made is a debt unpaid, and the trail has its own stern code.
In the days to come, though my lips were dumb, in my heart how I cursed that load.
In the long, long night, by the lone firelight, while the huskies, round in a ring,
Howled out their woes to the homeless snows— O God! how I loathed the thing.

And every day that quiet clay seemed to heavy and heavier grow;
And on I went, though the dogs were spent and the grub was getting low;
The trail was bad, and I felt half mad, but I swore I would not give in;
And I'd often sing to the hateful thing, and it hearkened with a grin.

Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay;
It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the "Alice May."
And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum;
Then "Here," said I, with a sudden cry, "is my cre-ma-tor-eum."

Some planks I tore from the cabin floor, and I lit the boiler fire;
Some coal I found that was lying around, and I heaped the fuel higher;
The flames just soared, and the furnace roared—such a blaze you seldom see;
And I burrowed a hole in the glowing coal, and I stuffed in Sam McGee.

Then I made a hike, for I didn't like to hear him sizzle so;
And the heavens scowled, and the huskies howled, and the wind began to blow.
It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled down my cheeks, and I don't know why;
And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak went streaking down the sky.

I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear;
But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near;
I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: "I'll just take a peep inside.
I guess he's cooked, and it's time I looked"; ... then the door I opened wide.

And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar;
And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: "Please close that door.
It's fine in here, but I greatly fear you'll let in the cold and storm—
Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it's the first time I've been warm."

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.

[Hartmut]

For anybody who knows the very obscene, anonymous rugby song The Ballad of Eskimo Nell...

I have to admit that I only watched the movie ;-)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo_Nell_(film)

[wj]

The Cremation of Sam McGee

For those who aren't up for reading it, here's Johnny Cash reciting it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJNZwuamwj0

[wonkie]

I like the Ballad of Blasphemous BIll It concerns the logistics of burial in the winter:
Have you ever stood in an Arctic hut in the shadow of the Pole,
With a little coffin six by three and a grief you can’t control?
Have you ever sat by a frozen corpse that looks at you with a grin,
And that seems to say: “You may try all day, but you’ll never jam me in”?
I’m not a man of the quitting kind, but I never felt so blue
As I sat there gazing at that stiff and studying what I’d do.
Then I rose and I kicked off the husky dogs that were nosing round about,
And I lit a roaring fire in the stove, and I started to thaw Bill out.

Well, I thawed and thawed for thirteen days, but it didn’t seem no good;
His arms and legs stuck out like pegs, as if they was made of wood.
Till at last I said: “It ain’t no use — he’s froze too hard to thaw;
He’s obstinate, and he won’t lie straight, so I guess I got to — saw.”
So I sawed off poor Bill’s arms and legs, and I laid him snug and straight
In the little coffin he picked hisself, with the dinky silver plate,
And I came nigh near to shedding a tear as I nailed him safely down;
Then I stowed him away in my Yukon sleigh, and I started back to town.

[wonkie]

It got up to 110 here today. That never happens in SW WA. The cedar trees are being killed by the dry hot summers we're getting from climate change. it is awful outside. I really think I would rather deal with excessive cold. I grew up in Iowa where wind chill pushes the temp down to seventy below.

[wj]

I see that a place in British Columbia hit 116 yesterday. Just 1 degree short of the all time record . . . for Las Vegas.

In global warming wasn't a myth, a person could start to worry.

[CharlesWT]

As has been generally the case for the past month or so in north-central Texas, it's overcast and rainy days with some sunny and temperatures at about or below average. 116 may be the record high temperature for here.

[byomtov]

It's 97 right now here in Cambridge.

[cleek]

but only 86 in beautiful Pittsboro NC.

this is a strange weather pattern.

[GftNC]

Git yer joy on, eh?

I can tell you that many millions of Englishmen and women are overjoyed right now because England just beat Germany in the Euros 2-0. I couldn't care less, myself, except that I think there is something extremely touching and English about the widespread attachment to the song Three Lions, which (as one of its writers reminds us) is mainly about loss and disappointment. Given the Anglophilic tendencies of certain ObWiers (Monty Python etc), I thought some of you might be interested.

https://www.standard.co.uk/insider/david-baddiel-three-lions-magic-spell-england-football-euros-b943160.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1624973367

The original video, created for a tournament several years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJqimlFcJsM

And for those who are unaware of the phenomenon, this is the explanation for mobs of Englishpeople roaming the streets shouting "It's coming home!"

[CharlesWT]

It's 97 right now here in Cambridge.

About 90 here.

[nous]

It's perfectly normal June Gloom in So Cal by the shore. Currently 74F (23C) and mostly cloudy.

We are always looking around at places that we are considering retiring to in the not-near-but-foreseeable future (or bailing to, should the jobs crash and burn; making living in this housing marked unsustainable). The websites list all of the seasonal weather patterns for the locales we have looked at and we think how nice it would be to have a winter again. Then we look at the last three years of weather and think that, sure the climate is still in that range, but the variability and extremes make it all seem so much more volatile.

[wj]

In Northern California, slightly (25 miles and a range of hills) inland from the coast, we have whiplash. In a single week, we have days when the high barely makes 70. And also days when it tops 111. I've lived here all my life. In 7 decades it has never been this crazy.

[Nigel]

Republicans are finally beginning to address... their messaging on climate change.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/29/northwest-heat-wave-republicans-497062

[Hartmut]

A bit of relief by rain around here.
When I went to school (mainly the 80ies) temperatures reaching 30°C were an extreme rarity. Now the question is not if but when we pass that threshold each year.
Plus snow has become a rarity in winter.
And I feel uncomfortable once it gets above 25°C, so it's going in the wrong direction from my POV.
Our first federal chancellor (Adenauer) used to say that the steppes of Asia begin right behind the river Elbe. This starts to makes sense (taken literally not as a politcal figure of speech). Brandenburg is indeed officially steppe-forming.

[Nigel]

A hard (and far from depressing) look at what's necessary.

Quantifying the challenge of reaching a 100% renewable energy power system for the United States
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2542435121002464

[novakant]

International football gives us a rather unsettling insight into certain corners of the English psyche:

the masochism, the fabricated grudges and the idolizing of failure mixed with the most brutal jingoism and racism.

Some clever psychoanalyst should really have a go at this.

[CharlesWT]

Quantifying the challenge of reaching a 100% renewable energy power system for the United States

Unlikely to happen and doesn't matter much. China is in the process of building about 250 coal-fired plants. And the rest of the world will be building its share of fossil fuel plants.

[Nigel]

Actually, it's fairly likely to happen (90+% renewables almost certainly), and it matters quite a lot.

Within a decade it will likely be impossible to finance a new coal plant, but in the meantime there is indeed a danger that a large number of uneconomic plants will get built.
We'll see how many of those planned plants get cancelled in the next few years.

[Girl from the North Country]

the masochism, the fabricated grudges and the idolizing of failure mixed with the most brutal jingoism and racism.

The only one of these I didn't know about (and I know almost nothing about football along with most sport, in all fairness) is the fabricated grudges. But in all fairness to them, (and I know you weren't talking about them specifically) I doubt that Baddiel and Skinner are guilty of brutal jingoism and racism, although of course many of the England fans who have taken the song to their hearts no doubt are.

[wj]

Within a decade it will likely be impossible to finance a new coal plant,

Well, outside China. Where the actual ROI may matter less.

[CharlesWT]

Well, outside China. Where the actual ROI may matter less.

Except that...

"More than 70% of all coal plants built today are reliant on Chinese funding. Since 2013, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has committed over USD $50 billion in state finance to building 26.8 Gigawatts of overseas coal facilities across 152 countries. That’s just the beginning."
The Belt and Road’s Decarbonization Dilemma: As The World’s Largest Coal Consumer Turns To Renewables, Chinese Coal Financing continues Abroad

[wj]

China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Sometimes, ROI isn't entirely, or even mostly, about money.

[Hartmut]

And Bolsonaro will make up for it by getting rid of all remaining rain forests in Brazil, if he can manage it. Preferably by burning them down (if he can't export the wood anyway, he will do so with some extra glee).
The next GOP president will also try to revert the navy to coal powering the ships.

[cleek]

Boeing is working on the next generation of steam-powered aereo planes as we speak.

[CharlesWT]

Sometimes, ROI isn't entirely, or even mostly, about money.

China's goal is to become the world's top dog by 2050. Everything else, including green energy, is secondary. China, as in the CCP, likely feels that being top dog in hell is better than being in any world where it's secondary to the US or anyone else.

[nous]

Not sure which of the two active threads this fits better in, but it's relevant to both:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1409592342726709248.html

12/While we have tended to view misinfo/disinfo as a first-order problem based on truth/falsity, this is less valid the more you look at second order effects. And even 'true' information, properly timed and directed, can also have negative effects on social capital formations.

13/Those familiar with Claude Shannon and information theory might consider that 'information' doesn't just reduce uncertainty; it should also be considered in terms of its effects on human + networked targets. Info must be considered in terms of effects; not just true/false.

14/Therefore, ethical decisions about what constitutes useful media should not be restricted to considerations about accuracy, but also must include intended and actual effects on target populations. Propagandists know this all too well.

With some quality links to articles like this one in the thread:

https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/right-and-left-partisanship-predicts-asymmetric-vulnerability-to-misinformation/

Of particular interest to me from the thread:

58/Perhaps notable: we didn’t talk once about education, intelligence, or media literacy. That was on purpose. In general we overemphasize these factors, I think; network pathologies override them. Otherwise “smart” people can fall into network black holes they can’t escape.

59/And to return to the “gravity” analogy, social capital is to gravity as cults are to black holes. And we are all susceptible, in varying degrees, to some kind of social manipulation.

Likewise, some have joked: “We used to think, ‘if only people had access to more information.’ Clearly that wasn’t the problem!” Indeed. Social capital pathologies are the problem, and people used access to info to reinforce them!

[wj]

“We used to think, ‘if only people had access to more information.’ Clearly that wasn’t the problem!”

Whereas we should have thought it thru and said: “We used to think, ‘if only people had access to more, accurate, information.’” Access to more misinformation/disinformation is the current problem.

[nous]

And more on the coal topic:

https://www.vox.com/22151710/china-japan-south-korea-climate-change-coal-finance

There are a lot of plants under consideration, but those projects are vulnerable to pressure from activism, and we may be at or near a tipping point in public opinion as the evidence for ecological collapse gets harder to ignore, and thus harder to craft disinformation against.

[wj]

we may be at or near a tipping point in public opinion as the evidence for ecological collapse gets harder to ignore

One may hope. But, culture wars over reality so often. Only considering how many people managed to ignore evidence that covid was real, even as it killed them. So, I wouldn't bet the ranch on it. (Even though climate change is likely to make the ranch no longer economically viable.)

[nous]

One may hope. But, culture wars over reality so often. Only considering how many people managed to ignore evidence that covid was real, even as it killed them.

I was thinking of the cancellation of Keystone XL and the blows that dealt to the pipeline builders' market value.

The rabid culture warriors still have some political numbers to contend with, but their economic clout continues to dissipate in our siphon-up economy. The window of opportunity is closing, and the risk of being caught on the wrong side of the bubble is increasing.

[wj]

The window of opportunity is closing, and the risk of being caught on the wrong side of the bubble is increasing.

But even if you aren't getting all the big donors there that you used to, you still have to win primaries. Which are a lagging indicator.

[nous]

But even if you aren't getting all the big donors there that you used to, you still have to win primaries. Which are a lagging indicator.

None of that matters if the money people financing the projects get cold feet and take their money elsewhere. That's what gives me hope.

[Ugh]

Fuck Donald Rumsfeld

[nous]

Rumsfeld dies and Cosby gets released from prison.

Is there some weird, perverse quota system operating here?

[CharlesWT]

Rumsfeld dies after his time.

Cosby released before his time.

[Ugh]

Dick Cheney, bad ticker and all, still living somehow.

[wj]

I hate to get my hopes up. But I'm getting my hopes up.

It seems that, having read (listened to someone else read) Barr's story of his discussions with McConnell, and McConnell's comments about him, Trump is saying that the Senate Republicans need a new leader. "And fast!" Since they listen to him about lots of other stuff, maybe they will on this as well.

[russell]

China, as in the CCP, likely feels that being top dog in hell is better than being in any world where it's secondary

I have no idea what the leaders of the CCP are thinking or feeling, TBH.

But I could understand them seeing criticism of their energy policy from the US as a species of IGMFU.

[CharlesWT]

But I could understand them seeing criticism of their energy policy from the US as a species of IGMFU.

Much of the rest of the world is likely to see the first world as espousing that. And they will settle for dirty coal plants if the first world refuses to help them do otherwise.

[cleek]

KY seems to like him, no matter what Trump thinks.

[novakant]

Baddiel and Skinner seem alright to me, though they stuck us with that horrid song, lol ... and about 50% of the English people are really nice, just like in most other countries.

[Russell]

Completely agree with Charles at 5:39

[wj]

KY seems to like him, no matter what Trump thinks.

True enough. Although, since Kentucky just elected a Democrat as Governor, he might not want to get too complacent there.

But I was thinking more of Senate Republicans replacing him as leader. Spineless as they are about Trump, they might.

[wj]

Well, this should distract Trump for a bit.
Grand Jury Indicts Trump Organization and Its CFO

The howls of self-pitying outrage from Mar-a-Lago are probably audible half way across the country. Even without a megaphone.

[russell]

"Weisselberg? Don't really know the guy, I think my father hired him."

[russell]

Rumsfeld dies

and so, depending on how one sees these things, perhaps for Rumsfeld some of the unknown unknowns are no longer quite so unknown.

may the arrogance and hubris he brought to office die with him.

[wj]

"Weisselberg? Don't really know the guy, I think my father hired him."

Seems pretty likely, actually. He appears to be far more competent than your typical hire. (Admittedly a low bar.)

[hairshirthedonist]

I have a hard time thinking this apocalyptic-sounding CNN headline doesn't exist because of AGW:

"Canadian village ordered to evacuate due to wildfires a day after temperatures topped 121 degrees"

[Nigel]

and about 50% of the English people are really nice, just like in most other countries.

My wife, who is a US citizen, cheered the win.
(Neither of us has any interest in soccer.)

[Nigel]

A couple of fairly definitive Rumsfeld obits...

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/06/how-donald-rumsfeld-deserves-be-remembered/619334/

This one particularly succinct.
https://twitter.com/radeksikorski/status/1410471133212782600
I worked with Donald Rumsfeld as Poland's minister of defence during the Iraq war 2005-2007 and I agree with this assessment. The man was a spiteful prig who landed the U.S. and its allies into a sea of unnecessary trouble.

[liberal japonicus]

I can't find it, but I heard a Rumsfeld anecdote that when he was a CEO, someone brought some document into him and he asked him how many words were in it. The anecdote teller felt this was some remarkable insight, seems to be to emphasize the 'spiteful prig' observation.

[Girl from the North Country]

That Atlantic Rumsfeld obit is excellent. It's not long, but I thought this para was particularly succinct:

Rumsfeld was the worst secretary of defense in American history. Being newly dead shouldn’t spare him this distinction. He was worse than the closest contender, Robert McNamara, and that is not a competition to judge lightly. McNamara’s folly was that of a whole generation of Cold Warriors who believed that Indochina was a vital front in the struggle against communism. His growing realization that the Vietnam War was an unwinnable waste made him more insightful than some of his peers; his decision to keep this realization from the American public made him an unforgivable coward. But Rumsfeld was the chief advocate of every disaster in the years after September 11. Wherever the United States government contemplated a wrong turn, Rumsfeld was there first with his hard smile—squinting, mocking the cautious, shoving his country deeper into a hole. His fatal judgment was equaled only by his absolute self-assurance. He lacked the courage to doubt himself. He lacked the wisdom to change his mind.

When I heard (here) that he died, I could only regret that Dick Cheney still survived, and I contemplated what the two of them achieved. Between them, they were an unrelieved disaster.

[novakant]

Regarding the Atlantic obit: all of this would be a bit more convincing if it wasn't written by "liberal hawk" George Packer.

It seems to me that Rumsfeld is convenient as a foil for those who should be looking hard at their own role in the crime that was the Iraq war.

One of the few people who did so convincingly is Peter Beinart.

[GftNC]

On hilzoy's twitter feed, someone links a shot of Rumsfeld's infamous torture memo, including the handwritten addendum "However, I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is Standing limited to 4 hours?", to which hilzoy comments, perfectly:

May he stand for all eternity.

https://twitter.com/hilzoy/status/1410431179958935555

[CharlesWT]

Looks like Elon Musk is kissing up to the CCP on Chinese social media. The background appears to have been selected by him as it doesn't appear on other Weibo accounts.

Weibo - Elon Musk

[cleek]

Weibo - Elon Musk

get redirected to Weibo's very ugly, 2000-esque, front page.

[CharlesWT]

The link still works for me. If you're on the front page, put elonmusk in the search box at the top left of the page and click on the first link of the search result.

Websites created in China often haven't keep up with the times and can be a bit glitchy. When Adobe discontinued Adobe Flash, their train schedule system in one location broke.

"The end of Adobe Flash had been a long time coming, but one Chinese rail system seemed to have missed the memo.

Trains in Dalian, northern China, halted for up to 20 hours after 8 a.m. last Jan. 12, the same day that Adobe blocked Flash content from running on its Flash player, AppleDaily reported last Jan. 17.
...
By not deactivating Flash, China Railway Shenyang railroads in Dalian City suffered from the effects of a software that was no longer operating. Train schedules could not be loaded, dispatchers were unable to print train data and the system went on and off for 20 hours, as per Wired on Sunday, Jan. 24, citing a statement from officials translated by journalist Tony Lin on Jan. 15."
As Adobe Flash comes to an end, trains in China stop running

[wj]

And in the US, when you dig down on most MRIs (for just one example) you find that they are running Win95. Lots of capital equipment hasn't been replaced in quite a while; that's the nature of capital equipment. And it's typically not built for software upgrades either.

Their system security is of equal vintage, too. Lots of opportunities for ransomware attacks. Fun times.

[CharlesWT]

"A successful ransomware attack on a single company has spread to at least 200 organizations, according to cybersecurity firm Huntress Labs, making it one of the single largest criminal ransomware sprees in history.

The attack, first revealed Friday afternoon, is believed to be affiliated with the prolific ransomware gang REvil and perpetuated through Kaseya, an international company that remotely controls programs for companies that, in turn, manage internet services for businesses.
...
Since those Kaseya customers manage hundreds or thousands of businesses, it is unclear how many will fall victim to ransomware over the weekend. But the number's at least already around 200, said John Hammond, a senior security researcher at Huntress, which is helping with Kaseya's response. That number expected to rise."
Ransomware attack on software manager hits 200 companies: Kaseya, an international company that remotely controls programs for companies, said it was attacked by hackers and warned all customers to immediately stop using its service.

[cleek]

company that remotely controls programs for companies

i mean..

[Russell]

Not sure if it’s still so, but as of a couple of years ago many or most ATMs were running Windows XP, which hasn’t been supported since 2014.

[GftNC]

Not sure if this is the right thread, but I liked this and thought some of you might too. It's from Ian Leslie's the Browser, which I have said before I find a reliable source for interesting stuff;

http://thenervousbreakdown.com/tnbnonfiction/2012/09/excerpt-from-we-learn-nothing-by-tim-kreider/

A sample:

I can’t recapture that feeling of euphoric gratitude any more than I can really remember the mortal terror I felt when I was pretty sure I had about four minutes to live. But I know that it really happened, that that state of grace is accessible to us, even if I only blundered across it once and never find my way back. At my cabin on the Chesapeake Bay I’ll see bald eagles swoop up from the water with wriggling little fish in their talons, and whenever they accidentally drop their catch, I like to imagine that fish trying to tell his friends about his own near-death experience, a perspective so unprecedented there are no words in the fish language to describe it: for a short time he was outside the world, he could see forever, there’s so much more than they knew, but he’s glad to be back.

[Pro Bono]

Not sure if it’s still so, but as of a couple of years ago many or most ATMs were running Windows XP, which hasn’t been supported since 2014.

I'm sure it's not. They're mostly running Windows CE or Windows 10 (recently migrated from 7).